what does your asd child spend his time doing?

hi, very new here loads of questions to follow but at the moment i am struggling with the fact that if my son (4 in 2 months ) and i are in the house he just wants to watch telly or play on the i pad. i find it so hard to get him to do anything else i feel like he just doesnt enjoy anything else. you name it iv tried it baking painting drawing hiding...the list goes on. i can get involed sometimes at parts of his programmes that he copies, he is really into dinosaurs and anything with david attenborough... and we can roar at eachother or chase each other but its only on his terms and it never lasts long...i feel guilty leaving him to it. we do spend as much time as poss out the house he loves swimming and throwing stones in the river but its not always possible..is anyone dealing with something similar? any suggestions ?

Yes to,dinosaurs and David Attenborough!!He is older now so although he still loves dinosaurs and nature programmes, his interests have widened.He enjoys swimming and riding his bike.He really likes top gear now (sadly) and the bbc farm programmes.He likes playing games on the iPad and sometimes watches you tube clips.

He likes to play CBeebies games on the PC. He doesn't watch so much CBeebies programmes on the TV since he has discovered he can watch whichever ones he likes on iPlayer. He likes logging on to Bug Club and reading the new book they have sent him. He does like books and reading; his comprehension is improving so he is getting more from this.

For toys he really likes his wooden railway and the wooden road set (to a lesser extent). He has tons of vehicles of all descriptions, as he likes to point out road sweepers, bin lorries and other slightly less usual vehicles (while out). He's - cough! - extremely interested in buses and trains, and will google Images of them (he's especially excited by double-deck trains). He really likes Postman Pat, so he's got DVDs of that and all Pat's vehicles and buildings. We tend to only watch the DVDs at times of illness though (shuddering at memory of recent 6-hour stints of Greendale and Pencaster...)

He always loved going out for walks, from when he started walking, and likes nothing better than going different places. He loves playparks, soft play, swimming and the flumes at the swimming pool. If our garden was bigger I would get him a trampoline, as he does like to bounce. He does have a bike with stabilisers, our garden is so small he can really only go round and round, but when he can use the brakes a bit more reliably we'll take him somewhere like the park.

My DS is 5, he likes watching clips on Youtube and also goes on the Moshi Monsters and Bin Weevil websites. His elder sister (NT) started him on these but I don't mind as the earning virtual money, saving or spending it, doing the puzzles etc is good for him.

He likes watching certain CBeebies programmes, but, like Noodle's DS, he prefers to watch them on iIPlayer so he can choose which episode to watch when he wants.

He also likes drawing tons of pictures relating to his interests. Because his sis likes drawing too, I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of paper.

He likes playing houses with DD, or on his own, and will line up a street of Fireman Sam buildings and any other house he can find.

He does potter around with other toys but these are really his main interests.

Ha ha thanks I will show her both those links tomorrow! And yes awomansworth I actually think it is always German! She used to watch the same scene of toy story over and over too and she switched to German on the DVD player too. Even stranger when she was two to three and had very few words she used to say nine nine nine instead of no no no ! We used to joke that the issue wasn't that she couldn't speak it was us speaking the wrong language to her!

This evening, DS2 found one of DH's hair elastics. I suggested that he tried to put it in his hair and, amazingly, he understood and tried to do it. He couldn't quite fathom it out, though, so the next half hour consisted of me putting it in his hair and him taking it out again and asking for me to put it in again. He was even trying to say "do it again" - slightly repetitive and tedious for me, but he was lovely and snuggly and chatty, which was well worth it.